Week 6 - End of Class

This is the end of class, the last week. All in all, this has been a great experience. I have learned a lot about online collaboration through the use of blogs and wikis because of the hands on assignments we have had. And have gotten to kknow many of my classmates through Facebook. This has been a great

Week 5

Going for the home stretch. Can't believe there is only one more week of class. I completed my wiki (finally). I learned a lot in this class over the past 5 weeks. There are several technologies that we use for socialization that can have practical applications in the classroom. The problem now becomes convincing the powers that be especially those who head schools in the inner cities, to allow students access to the technologies used outside of the classroom inside the classroom. School systems such as those in New York City ban students from bringing electronic devices such as cellphones and iPods into school as well as blocking school computers access to websites such as Facebook. In addition, there are teachers who tell students not to use Wikipedia when doing research papers. There is also the problem of schools not always having the money to upgrade their equipment.


The people who are in charge need to be shown that wikis, blogs, Facebook, Delicious, etc. are applications that our children and teachers should be learning how to use. Teachers and staff should receive training not only in using these technologies but how to teach students to use the technolgies safely and appropriately. However, too much of the focus especially under NCLB are test scores, teacher and administrator salaries and privatizing public education by opening more charter schools. By the time our children catch up, it may be too late.

Week 4

A lot has happened this week. Working on my wiki page, set up a group on Facebook and the mayor of New York City appointed yet another non-educator to be schools chancellor. This time, he already had his selection made when the outgoing chancellor Joel Klein, made his announcement. A lot of opposition is building regarding his choice of Cathie Black, a former publishing executive as chancellor. To be continued...

I'm kind of worried about how my wiki will look like and hope that I can do it in a way where the information is easily accessible. Setting up the group on Facebook was easy once I made friends with everyone I want to be in the group. Wikis have already proven to be great tools for use in education as several teachers in the mid-West and other places have demonstrated. I'm not too sure about Facebook because of some of the limitations regarding the amount of characters you can type for comments, etc. However, it is great for posting short things like assignments, links to articles and things of that nature. So, I guess there is some use for it in education.

I have also have had the opportunity of reading some very interesting articles about creativity in schools and students as well as how young Black male students are still behind in terms of achievement. In my opinion, No Child Left Behind has done a lot to stifle creativity in students and teachers because of the emphasis on testing. Because of this law and budget cuts which seem to be more and more prevalent, programs such as art, music and sports are being eliminated. But when students apply to college, they are expected to be "well-rounded". If you school cut the art, music and/or sports program and your parents cannot afford to pay for you to do these things, how can a student become well rounded? They could do community service which I think is important regardless but still where are the opportunities for our students to be come creative? Something to think about.

Facebook privacy

In the continuing saga on what employees can and cannot say on Facebook and whether those remarks should stay private, here is an article in today's USA Today Newspaper about a Connecticut woman regarding the remarks she made on Facebook about her employer. http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2010-11-10-facebook10_ST_N.htm

I suspect that we may soon see an educator or two bring about the same type of lawsuit.

Week 3

The discussion question this week focused on an article about a teacher who was fired because of a comment she made on her Facebook page which she thought was private. The reason people found out about her comment was because Facebook gave the newspaper in which the article appeared in access to the Facebook pages of teachers who worked in that school district. Did the teacher have a responsibility for the comments she made because she was an educator? Did Facebook have the right to give the newspaper access to the webpages of those teachers? Should we separate our professional and private lives? These are some of the questions that can and will be debated given the open nature of the Internet and issues of privacy.

The emails that are sent by PB Works are very helpful in building the wiki. I missed the webinar because I had to stay late at work and did not get home early enough but the emails are helpful enough.